Artist Mood Board

Planning Stage 1

Artist Profile
Ellie Carey, a 20 year old singer/songwriter from Peckham, London began writing at the age of 15 and started performing when she was 18 after studying musical theatre.

The younger of two, Ellie grew up in a musical family with her father being a previous performer and her mother a piano teacher. The singer has previously said, “If it weren’t for my family I would never have had the opportunity that I have been given. My family and my fans are my biggest inspiration when writing and performing.”

Ellie’s songs often represent true events in her life and this can be heard through her lyrics. Her debut single ‘Jamie, Please Come Home’ is an example of where this can be heard through her honest lyrics and expressive voice.

Her biggest musical influences growing up were Kate Bush and The Smiths and in 2009, during one of her early performances in London, she was spotted by an editor from ‘Q’ magazine who compared her to the likes of ‘Florence + the Machine’ and ‘Kate Nash’ due to her quirky soulful voice. 

In 2010, a year after being spotted, she signed to the label Island Records under the name ‘Ellie and the Innocence’. The singer refers to her fans as “the Innocence” as they are important to her; this also reflects the young age in which she started her musical career.

Her debut album is set to be released early next year.

Final Synopsis of Music Video

What is the overall idea for your music video?

From the lyrics, the overall storyline of the song is that the artist’s love interest, Jamie, has left her and she misses him. To show how she feels we are planning to use close-up shots of props such as photographs of her and Jamie, portraying the past relationship and emphasise how much she misses him. The artist’s costume will most likely consist of a playsuit with a leather jacket, creating an unusual but fashionable style to the artist. There will be two main settings used throughout the video; these will be a bedroom and a street as we think these are two settings that will relate to the lyrics of the song.

The video will begin with the audience seeing photographs of the artist with her love interest. The artist then sings the first verse whilst sitting from her bed. As the chorus plays, the video cuts from the artist singing to the props disappearing around the room. Throughout the second verse there will be flashbacks used showing the artist and her love interest together, surrounded by friends, showing when they were happy. In the last verse, the artist leaves her bedroom and goes out onto the street, where her and her love interest once walked hand in hand. She believes she sees him again and she taps the person on the shoulder. This is not her love interest.

What generic devices are you using?
The generic devices that we are planning on using are:

·         Point of view shots

·         Mid-shots

·         Close-up

·         Zoom out

·         Pan

·         Straight Cuts

As a group we decided to use point of view shots in order to create a connection between the audience and the artist, allowing them to like the artist better. The mid-shots will be used throughout our video as we want this type of shot to show the audience the type of person the artist is as well as allowing them to see the artist as well as her surroundings. Close-up shots will be used in order for us to highlight certain objects or people, clearly making the audience focus on that object or person.

We are planning to use a zoom out at the very end of the video in order to show the audience the artist isolation since her love interest left her. As a group we decided it would be best to use the pan camera movement throughout the video in order to show a variety of props to the audience, such as a pan movement at the start of the video showing the audience a group of photographs in a line highlighting how happy our artist and love interest were at that time. Finally, we decided it would be best for us to use straight cuts throughout the video in order to create verisimilitude for the audience.

How will you conform/challenge convention?

As a group we are planning to conform to the music industry’s genre conventions as Dennis McQuail, a well known theorist, states “the genre may be considered as a practical device for helping any mass medium to produce consistently and efficiently and to relate its production to the expectations of its customers.” This means that we are hoping to conform to doing the necessary things in order to reach a mass medium as one of our main objectives is to make money.

What narrative devices are you going to deploy in your music video?

Firth (1988) stated that music videos can be characterised by 3 broad typologies:

• ·         Performance (to convey a sense of the in-concert experience)
• ·         Narrative (linear, love stories most popular)
• ·         Conceptual (metaphors to create a mood, offer multiple meanings)

As a group, we have chosen to use a performance and narrative style to our music video. By showing the artist singing in the video, and therefore performing, we will be able to allow the audience to relate to the artist and lyrics easily as they will feel part of the song. The use of a narrative in our music video will also allow us to make the video memorable because if the story of a video is interesting it often makes the song more popular. It is thought that this use of narrative in a music video is also most popular with a female audience, which links to our target audience of young females.

Are you going to challenge/conform to narrative convention?

As a group we decided that we will choose to challenge the conventional narrative structure of Todorov’s theory. This theory states that there are 5 stages to a media narrative:

1. 1.      Equilibrium
2. 2.      Disruption
3. 3.      Recognition of Disruption
4. 4.      Attempt to Restore Equilibrium
5. 5.      Reinstatement of Equilibrium

This structure will not be applied to our music video, as the story behind the song lyrics is about the artist’s love interest leaving her and this will mean that the video will not be able to begin with an equilibrium.

We have also chosen that our music video will have an open-ended narrative, as we feel this will keep interest between the audience and what is happening in the video, as well as making sense
with the story behind the lyrics.

How are you going to appeal to audiences?
We will use Mise-en-scene to appeal to the audience as they will be able to relate to the artist and her surroundings such as a bedroom, relationships and personal photographs. We have looked carefully at out questionnaire to make sure the video has a wide appeal to the target audience by making sure we use things such as point of view shots and eye contact as it was clear that the audience relate to the artist through these devices and will meet their needs as a consumer, just as the Uses and Gratification theory suggests.

How will you engage with the audience?
The use of shots we plan to use will help the audience have a connection with the artist along with narrative linear as the audience will get to see the emotions of the artist through the story and acting. We will use all the information we gathered from our earlier questionnaire to make sure we are giving the audience what they want along with what we want our artist to be like to engage the audience into wanting to see more from our artist and to relate to her. 

Could your music video be criticised in any way?

Our music could be seen as heavily audience seeking, however the artist we have created has an everyday person feel to her and her music, meaning she will already be relatable to a wider audience with or without the use of techniques we plan on using. We feel that this video and song are very suitable for the audience of today.

A Guide to the Music Industry

Section 1

In the music industry, a record label is a brand  associated with the marketing of music recordings and music videos. A record label is the company that manages its brands and trademarks, coordinates the production, manufacture, distribution, marketing and promotion, and copyright protection of recordings and music videos. Record labels are often under the control of a corporate organization called a music group. A music group is usually owned by a holding company which has non-music divisions as well.

There are four major record labels or major institutions that dominate music; these are Universal Music Group, Sony Music Entertainment, Warner Music Group and EMI. Each of these labels consists of many smaller companies which work with different genres of music and are in different regions to help distribute their products more efficiently.

Record companies that are not under the control of the four major record labels are known as independent or minor institutions. These types of companies produce and distribute their own music themselves. Since they have less money in comparison to the major institutions it makes it harder for them to produce and distribute successfully. In order for these types of companies to gain money with their production and distribution costs they can be bought by a major institution therefore becoming part of their smaller companies.

Section 2

Our chosen company is going to be Universal Music Group (UMG), subdivision Universal Music UK, Island Records. We have decided to use this company as they are part of the “big four” record companies which produces and distributes various genres of music however the subdivision of Island Records means that the main focus on genres that are released are rock and pop therefore narrowing down specific audiences.

The subdivision Universal Music UK, Island Records was founded by Chris Blackwell in Jamaica, 1959 however in May 1962 the company relocated to the UK until Blackwell sold the label to PolyGram.  From that moment Island was known as the largest indie record label in history and had a major influence on the music scene in the early 1970’s. In 1998 all of PolyGram and its associated labels were purchased by Seagrams who are now under the Universal Music Group. Since Universal has taken over it has resulted in a separation of brands and genres in order to appeal to a variety of specific audiences.

The company is also linked with NBC Universal, a media and entertainment company, which means that our artist will have a better chance of being heard due to Universal Studios and the Universal Channel only playing songs by artists who are part of the Universal Music Group. This is significant as it means that if our artists song is used as part of the soundtrack for a film or television show the artist will have a better chance at recognition depending on the genre and age group of the specific entertainment.


A variety of artists are signed to Island Records such as Akon, Keane and Tom Waits however the artists that are specific to our chosen genre of Indie Pop are Florence + The Machine, Pearl and the Puppets and Remi Nicole. The majority of Indie Pop artists that are signed to this label are female solo artists which is noteworthy for our group as a potential artist that we have chosen is a female solo artist. This is also beneficial for us as it shows us that they have an important control over a solo female artists and this means that they’ll be able to ‘push’ our artist out onto the music scene.

A common theme that recurs throughout the genres of music and the artists within the company/label are that they are very gender based such as solo male artists dominating the rap/hip-hop genre. Another common theme that is recurring is that certain genres are dominated by solo artists such as the Indie Pop genre; this can be beneficial yet detrimental to our chosen artist as it proves that our solo female artist will have a chance of being recognised since so many have been since they joined Island Records however since the Indie Pop genre is dominated by these types of artists it may present the fact that she’ll blend into the other artists and not stand out enough to specific target audiences.

As a group we find that out chosen company/label is a suitable organisation to work with for this project as it tailors to a specific genre which will allow us to have a chance at targeting our specific audience at hearing our artist and buying the CD therefore creating money for us and the company. The fact that our artist could be heard within a film or television show is important to us as it means that we plan who we 

will finally use, it has to cater to many people as well as our chosen audience.

http://www.youtube.com/user/universalmusicgroup?blend=1&ob=5

This links takes you to Universal Music Group's personal YouTube page

Indie Pop Documentary

A Definitive Guide to the Indie Pop Genre

A Definitive Guide to the Genre of Indie Pop

Denis McQuail says ‘The genre may be considered as a practical device for helping any mass medium to produce consistently and efficiently and to relate its production to the expectations of its customers’, this theory applies to the Indie pop genre. An example of where this theory has been applied is in the Marina and the Diamonds music video for ‘Hollywood’. The artist is portrayed as a strong and powerful female due to the frequent low angle shots of her singing, the audience expects this style of representation as she is a solo female artist and this shows her independence.

Typical Codes and Conventions Found in Indie Pop Music Videos

Camera shots and movements that are frequently used in this genre are:

• ·      Point-of-view shots
• ·      Close-ups
• ·      Handheld camera movements

An example of where all three of these elements can be found is in the video for Ellie Goulding’s song ‘Under The Sheets’. The use of point-of-view shots here allows the audience to have a connection with the artist, as she is singing to the camera. Close-ups here allow the artist to clearly be the focus and create an identity for the audience. By using handheld camera movements, the audience feel part of the action and the jerky movements of the camera gives an unusual feel to the video, as it doesn’t seem perfect.

The style of framing and editing in Indie Pop videos are commonly styled as:

• ·      Artist/Band in the centre of the frame
• ·      Straight cuts
• ·      Fast edits

The use of straight cuts and fast edits creates continuity and verisimilitude, as well as linking to the up tempo style of the music genre. The use of having the artist/band in the centre of the frame frequently, allows the audience to clearly see them as the focus and as important.

Most videos that fall into this genre use unusual props and vintage style costumes. An example of where these two elements can be found is in the Kate Nash video for ‘Foundations’. Props such as toothbrushes, socks and watches have all been used to link with the lyrics but create a quirky tone to the artist and video. The artist’s costume consists of an old-fashioned vintage style dress, which is considered fashionable at the moment, however as the style is dated this gives an unusual feel to the artist.

Typical Codes and Conventions Found on Indie Pop CD Covers

The image used on the front cover and inlay of a CD from this genre tends to be:

• ·      The artist/band
• ·      An unusual image
• ·      Patterned background

When an image of the artist/band is used on the front cover, the style is usually simple such as a plain or patterned behind the artist/band, allowing the band/artist to be the main focus and eye-catching to the viewer. This also helps the audience to recognise the artist/band therefore creating a connection with the viewer. An example of where an unusual image has been used is on the Two Door Cinema Club album cover for ‘Tourist History’. The image is a cat, which does not relate to the band, but creates intrigue for the viewer, as they want to find out why it has been used.

The inlay usually contains a recurring theme that is seen on the front and back cover of the CD such as a colour. This style is evident in The Kooks album ‘Inside In Inside Out’. One side of the inlay tends to show another image of the artist/band, again allowing them to be the focus of the whole album.

The style of text used on the cover of an Indie Pop CD tends to be:

• ·      Handwritten, feminine style
• ·      Block, simple style
• ·      Usually white text
• ·      Simple/unusual album name
• ·      No tagline

The font style usually used for the female artist/band is a handwritten style which is quite feminine. However, for the male band/artist, such as The Drums, the style is a simple block font. This allows the audience to clearly see the difference between the types of artist’s that fit into this genre. The text is normally white, allowing it to stand out clearly against the image or background, therefore making the text clear and stand out to the viewer.

The album name of an Indie Pop album is usually short and simple, such as Florence and the Machine ‘Lungs’, allowing the title to be memorable for the viewer. However, some album names such as Lily Allen ‘It’s Not Me, It’s You’ are unusual and immediately give a quirky feel to the artist. The album do not normally have a tagline features on them.

The back cover of the album lists the tracks featured on the album. The text is usually in the same font and colour style as the front cover, keeping an overall feel to the album. The artist website can also be found on the back cover, allowing buyers to find out more about the artist/band. There is also a barcode on the back cover.

Typical Codes and Conventions Found on an Indie Pop Album Advert

The image used on an album advert for this genre is:

• ·      An image of the band/artist
• ·      Same image as the CD cover
• ·      Unusual image/background

The image used is usually of the artist/band, and normally the same image as on the CD cover. This allows the audience to recognise the album in a shop, as well as showing the identity of the artist/band. The use of an unusual image or background helps to create intrigue around the album as it appears different, for example the Arcade Fire ‘Neon Bible’ album advertisement uses a square style image that links to the album name. The use of not seeing the band/artist also creates anticipation for what the band/artist is going to be like. When this style of image is used, the picture appears dated which links to the style of the artist/band.

The fonts and colours used on the album adverts tend to be the same as the styles used on the actual album. This again allows the CD to be recognisable as well as keeping to the recurring themes such as colour.

The use of having comments and star rating by trusted critics, for example the Ellie Goulding alum advertisement for ‘Lights’, allows the artist/band to appear respected, which will persuade people to buy the album more. The advert lists popular and well-known songs, which again will help persuade viewers to buy the album.

Representations, Narrative and Lighting used in the Indie Pop Genre

The representations usually portrayed in this genre are youth. The elements that indicate this is the use of on-trend costumes, quirky props and the artist/band themselves tend to be young. Women can also be seen as represented as strong and independent, such as Lily Allen, by the use of low-angle shots and unrevealing costume as well as the fact they are solo female artists.

Indie Pop music videos do not tend to have a clear, linear narrative. They also do not tend to follow Todorov’s theory or Propp’s theory.

The style of lighting used throughout the Indie Pop genre is unusual lighting such as mix-match colour like reds and blues. The use of back lighting puts the emphasis on the artist/band and creates a bizarre feel to the artist/band. 

Audience Profile

The target audience for this genre is going to be females who are in their late teens, between the ages of 16-22.

From the questionnaire it is clear that these audience members would prefer to watch Orange Unsigned Acts in comparison to the X-factor, indicating that they try to be different and less mainstream in their music tastes therefore making them the ideal audience for our chosen genre.  The questionnaire also revealed that these viewers use iPods to listen to their music which they download songs from iTunes and illegal download sites mostly, which again is relevant as this way of getting music is very popular within this age range.

The target audience preferred Indie Pop from the other sub-genres of Indie music and they preferred to see a band in an Indie Pop music video; however a solo artist had a very similar amount of results. The audience relate to the artist/band through eye-contact with the camera by using point-of-view shots and the questionnaire showed that audience members prefer to see a story that relates to the lyrics of the song in the music video in comparison to just the artist/band singing into the camera or on a stage.

The target audience expect the colours on an Indie Pop CD cover to be dark, simple colours such as black, green and red and they also expect the album name to be quite simple or on a complete different scale of unusual, which links to the quirky style of Indie Pop. On an Indie Pop CD back cover, we found out that the viewer expects the font style and colour of the text to be the same as on the front cover.

The questionnaire also told us that the audience expect the image used on the magazine advert for the album to be the same as the image that is used on the actual CD, making it easy to recognise the band/artist in a shop. The audience also expect the font and colour used on the magazine advert to be the same as on the CD cover, creating a theme throughout the whole album which again, makes it recognisable for the audience. The target audience also like to see star ratings, popular/well-known songs and the band’s/artist’s website to be featured on the album magazine advertisement.

Summary of Audience Questionnaire

Questionnaire 1

Questionnaire 2